ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 8

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

BARMAN SUFFOCATED. (Per United Press Association.) Dunedin, June 16. Leonard Philp, barman at the Empire Hotel, was suffocated early this morning in a fire at rooms in Carroll street occupied by him. Fire Superintendent Napier, after making a difficult entry through the smokeenveloped staircase, found the victim, a young man, lying on the floor alongside his bed. The rooms were untenanted save for him and it is suspected he fell asleep with a cigarette alight. FOUND IN POOL OF BLOOD. Dunedin, June 16. Philp was a porter not a barman. His room was on the third storey of the building untouched by fire which originated in a kitchenette on the second storey. The occupants of this portion were unable to communicate the alarm to Philp, who was found on the floor in a pool of blood. The theory is that his efforts to escape caused' haemorrhage. Philip was a single man, aged 25. A FARMER’S DEATH. Timaru, June 16. Patrick Cassidy, a farmer of Sutherlands, aged 52 years, was found with a wound in his throat on Tuesday and died that night. At the inquest to-day the verdict was that death was due to a razor wound self-inflict-ed while of unsound mind. Evidence showed that deceased had been depressed lately and in indifferent health. A FARMER’S SUICIDE. Christchurch, June 16. The inquest touching the death of Walter Leslie Buckingham, aged 27, a farmer of Papanui, who was found dead in the kitchen of his house with his head in a basin of water on May 29 was resumed this morning before Mr H. Y. Widdowson, Coroner, who returned a verdict of suicide while in a state of acute melancholia. A SEAMAN’S DEATH. Christchurch, June 16. Thomas John Meashan, who was found unconscious at the foot of a ladder leading down to the deck of the Ruahine at Lyttelton yesterday, died in the hospital tonight. Meashan worked his passage out as a seaman and it is believed that he intended to sign off at Lyttelton. A SUDDEN DEATH. Wellington, June 16. Charles Edmund Finch, who had been giving evidence in a civil case in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, suffered a paralytic seizure just after leaving the witness-box and was removed to a private hospital. He died a few hours later. Deceased was 48 years of age and the son of a former inspector of the Bank of New South Wales. He was also himself in the services of the bank till he entered into business as a stock and sharebroker. He was prominent in sporting circles and an enthusiastic member of the Navy League, of which he was treasurer. KNOCKED DOWN BY MOTOR. Gisborne, June 16. This evening a young girl named Walker, whose parents reside at Ruatoria, was knocked down by a motor-car while crossing a street intersection, but fortunately sustained no injuries more serious than a badly bruised forehead. DEATH IN CAMP. Hawera, June 16. George Rowland, about 40 and married, with six children, the eldest aged 10, died in his bunk at a bushman’s camp behind Hurleyville on Monday night. Two mates and volunteer helpers from outside had a strenuous time bringing the body over three miles of densely-wooded, hilly country, not reaching the settlement until after dusk.